Accidentally building an LJ

It’s far from finished but it’s off the jackstands and sitting on the suspension. Still a long list of stuff to check off but it’s cool to see it back on the ground again.
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ncsutj said:
Looks great man. I love it. Nice work.
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Thanks man. I’m pretty happy with how it’s all turning out so far.

Ran out of 1.5” tube yesterday and I was down to some random shorter lengths of 1.75” so I hooked up the trailer and took a ride to Stock Car Steel. Kind of slim pickings in the drop rack for what I needed so I bought a full stick each of 1.5” .095 and 1.75” .120 DOM along with a couple 1.5” .083 drops. I need a better way to store sticks of tube before I cut them. The only way I’ve found to get them out of my way is to hang them from the rafters but that’s a pain too. Just dropped these in the middle of the floor since I’ll be cutting pieces off to finish out the front.
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Rnuovrcj5 said:
Thanks man. I’m pretty happy with how it’s all turning out so far.

Ran out of 1.5” tube yesterday and I was down to some random shorter lengths of 1.75” so I hooked up the trailer and took a ride to Stock Car Steel. Kind of slim pickings in the drop rack for what I needed so I bought a full stick each of 1.5” .095 and 1.75” .120 DOM along with a couple 1.5” .083 drops. I need a better way to store sticks of tube before I cut them. The only way I’ve found to get them out of my way is to hang them from the rafters but that’s a pain too. Just dropped these in the middle of the floor since I’ll be cutting pieces off to finish out the front. View attachment 436098
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Get a couple wall mount ladder hooks from Lowes Depot and screw em into studs on the side wall. Even if there's a workbench or something in the way, set the difficult end on first, then hop down and set the easy end on.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Get a couple wall mount ladder hooks from Lowes Depot and screw em into studs on the side wall. Even if there's a workbench or something in the way, set the difficult end on first, then hop down and set the easy end on.
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I’ll probably do something like that once I close the front of this building in. I’m pretty much working under a 12’ tall carport right now with closed in storage behind it. 40x45’ roof and slab but only the back 20x45’ “back” is enclosed. And there’s a tack room built like a building inside a building taking up a big chunk of that space. It was built as a barn with covered parking. My plan is to put up walls and a pair of roll up doors but I’m making it work for now.
 
Rnuovrcj5 said:
Thanks man. I’m pretty happy with how it’s all turning out so far.

Ran out of 1.5” tube yesterday and I was down to some random shorter lengths of 1.75” so I hooked up the trailer and took a ride to Stock Car Steel. Kind of slim pickings in the drop rack for what I needed so I bought a full stick each of 1.5” .095 and 1.75” .120 DOM along with a couple 1.5” .083 drops. I need a better way to store sticks of tube before I cut them. The only way I’ve found to get them out of my way is to hang them from the rafters but that’s a pain too. Just dropped these in the middle of the floor since I’ll be cutting pieces off to finish out the front. View attachment 436098
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Stock Car Steel just called and said my order was ready for pickup. I just got 4ft lengths for my links so I didn't have to deal with 20ft lengths.
 
I have some 12" shelf brackets on the wall at my shop. There is a tube of 1.75 and some 2x2 on it now. Works great and I've had 4 or 5 20' sticks on it.
 
ncsutj said:
Stock Car Steel just called and said my order was ready for pickup. I just got 4ft lengths for my links so I didn't have to deal with 20ft lengths.
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I figured that if I had them cut it in half I’d end up needing a piece like 6” longer than what I had. Some of it is going to be the front of the roll cage so I’ll need some longer pieces for that.
ghost said:
I have some 12" shelf brackets on the wall at my shop. There is a tube of 1.75 and some 2x2 on it now. Works great and I've had 4 or 5 20' sticks on it.
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I’ll do that once I have walls up. If I did that right now it’d be the same as just leaning them against the outside of the building. The roof being 12’ up means if there’s even a breeze along with rain, everything is wet.
 
Couple more tubes fitted for the shock hoop brace. Tube couplers from TMR should be here tomorrow to make it removable once it’s welded in.

I spent Saturday pulling the front axle back out and getting after it. Lower link mounts got treated to a little love with a torch and grinder. I don’t really know how well they were welded on, but they were welded a LOT. New mounts are on and rolled down a bit from where they were. This gives me a little bit more vertical separation and should keep the lower links off of the frame rails at full bump. While the axle was out I also welded everything on the Genright upper link bracket and the track bar mount. I also plated the side of the diff cover with a piece of 1/8” steel to reinforce it for the hydro assist ram tabs. I welded one of those on too but I’ll wait for an unbent heim to show up before I burn in the other one. Painted it all up and stuck it back under the jeep. I double checked the link lengths and sent some dollars to WOD for some blingy lowers. Upper is going to be 1.75x.120” 4130 sleeved with some 1.5x.095” 4130. I’ll cut/weld it when I install the fancy lowers.

I snagged this cool power hacksaw from the Tex Powell Racing auction. It should be a nice addition to my fab tools and now I can stop looking for a horizontal bandsaw. Everything except the coolant pump seems to work like it should and it even came with a stack of blades for it. I’ll clean it up a bit and use it.

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35xj said:
cool build!
CRAZY. i built that tube buggy maybe 20 years ago!
i cant believe how many times its changed hands, and still going strong!
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That’s pretty cool! It was a good little ride when I had it. It got changed up a bit after it left me and last I heard it’s out west somewhere now.
 
Shock hoop cross bar is now removable. I’m an idiot and managed to solidly weld 3 of the 4 couplers in “upside down”. They still work fine and it’s really only a bit more effort to remove/install it than if I had them all the “right” way. After that was knocked out I tacked a few trick tabs on to the hoops to hold the horn, pdm, and auxbeam box. They’re all just heavily tacked because I’m not sure if that’s where they’ll permanently live. Then I chopped up one of my already heavily cut up fenders just to see what it will look like with the hood/tub corner filled back in. Looks much better and it’ll eventually get a nicer panel/tube fender made.

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I’m slowly but surely making progress. My goal is to drive it to Holden Beach the 2nd week of June and I’m feeling pretty good about making it. Since I last updated this, I’ve pulled, resealed, and reinstalled the engine and gotten some of the plumbing for the steering knocked out. The upper link (1.75x.120” 4130 sleeved with 1.5x.095” 4130) is welded up, painted, and installed along with the WOD 7075 lowers. The upper is the first time I’ve used the “super missile rod” filler and it turned out super nice. I kinda hated covering the welds on it up with paint.

Pulling the engine to reseal it turned out to be the right move. On top of not doing the oil pan and rear main from underneath, the freeze plug inside the bellhousing was pretty wet and I stuck a screwdriver right through it with almost no effort. The timing chain was pretty loose and the guide was broken so it got a fresh new Melling timing set before going back tighter. New water pump and a new balancer/crank pulley happened too while it was apart along with a seals/gaskets. Hopefully it’ll pick up a few horse-torques and not be a leaky, oily mess to work under any more.

Once the real links were on it I measured for and ordered a front driveshaft from Tom Woods. They want a ride height measurement but I also measured at full bump and full droop to make sure I didn’t need a long slip or anything crazy. It plunges like 3/4” through the entire travel so I think I’m good. I also mocked up a driveshaft with some tube to check the clearance on the trans pan since it looked pretty close. Piece of 2 3/8” tube around my fake shaft clears everything with plenty of wiggle room. I could probably run a 2.5” driveshaft if I wanted/needed to.

I ended up buying a new radiator because the lower hose on my Amazon aluminum factory replacement one would have to pass straight through the panhard bar and upper link mount at full stuff. 22x16” Griffin from Summit Racing is sitting here along with a 14” Spal electric fan. I’ve gotta weld some tabs/mounts on it but it looks like it’s going to fit well. I’ve got a pair of 16 row coolers to mount in the grille for the steering and transmission too. There’s another Summit order of hose and fittings for that on the way right now.

I played body man on the grille too. The led turn/marker lights that were in in were pretty dim and after looking at how they were wired, I’m not sure how they were even working. I welded filler pieces back into the holes they were in and then cut most of it back out for the new lights before painting the grille. It’s definitely a 10-15ft job as I could have blended the area around the turn signals a lot better as well as having some major orange peel issues with the clear coat. That’s what a “professional” paint job gets you I guess. New lights are KC Cyclones in Everman(?) bezels and they look awesome and are WAY brighter than the old ones.

A couple trips to the local hydraulic shop got me hoses and fittings to plumb the steering. Ram lines have field serviceable stuff on them and the pressure hose to the pump has crimped fittings. All Gates 4800psi hose. Once the low pressure stuff show up from Summit it’ll all be plumbed and I can fill it with the fancy PSC/Swepco 715 fluid.
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Hokie_YJ said:
I’ve been planning to do JK turn signals in my grille, but I REALLY like those. Going to look into that. You have a link for the bezels?

I found them. Definitely doing this!
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I’m super happy with how they look. I’ll take a pic of the wiring conversion pieces my buddy gave me to make the 2 wire lights function as turn and marker lights off the 3 wires the TJ uses. It’s intended for semi trailers to do exactly that. I was gonna make a conversion harness with diodes and resistors to do it but these are ready to plug in and work.
 
Rnuovrcj5 said:
I’m super happy with how they look. I’ll take a pic of the wiring conversion pieces my buddy gave me to make the 2 wire lights function as turn and marker lights off the 3 wires the TJ uses. It’s intended for semi trailers to do exactly that. I was gonna make a conversion harness with diodes and resistors to do it but these are ready to plug in and work.
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Awesome, thanks! I bet they're like what I had to buy when I put a flatbed with LEDs on my Dodge a few years back.
 
Power steering and transmission coolers are mounted and ready to be plumbed. Mount brackets welded on the new radiator and now it bolts in. I got the steering shaft support bearing mount made and welded to the shock hoop too. The grille hoop I made a while back had a little bit of a twist in it that I couldn’t get to straighten out by trying to bend it so I cut it in half, sleeved it, and welded it back together before welding it on the frame. I’ll build some tabs to hold the grille in place off of it before I start running hoses for the coolers.

I’ve also acquired a new shop pet 😂🤣
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Grille is mounted with some overkill sized tabs that I had in my box of random Jeep junk. Electric fan is mounted to the radiator at least until I can come up with a way I like better. I’ll probably end up making a shroud and I wouldn’t mind stepping up to a brushless fan with a PWM controller eventually. Grille hoop and “bumper” are painted and I wired the new turn/marker lights. I did away with the side markers that would have been in the fenders and cut a good bit of length out of the wiring for the ones I kept. The Grote 2-3 wire adapters seem to work great after I remembered that the grille only grounds through the support rods to the firewall. I was trying to test it in the floor beside the Jeep and had no lights at all until I remembered that. Also, the wiring colors for the adapters took a minute ago figure out. White is the ground wire instead of black and the 2 output wires are “backwards”.

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The part# on that Grote adapter didn't turn up in a search, but I found these that should do the same thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Custom-LED-Blinker-Genie-Automobiles/dp/B07DQRPRLW

What size is the radiator core? I have a nice blank aluminum shroud from my buggy build that I didn't use because I needed a deeper one for the Volvo fan. I think it's for a 22x19 radiator.
 
Hokie_YJ said:
The part# on that Grote adapter didn't turn up in a search, but I found these that should do the same thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Custom-LED-Blinker-Genie-Automobiles/dp/B07DQRPRLW

What size is the radiator core? I have a nice blank aluminum shroud from my buggy build that I didn't use because I needed a deeper one for the Volvo fan. I think it's for a 22x19 radiator.
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I’m not finding them now either? A month ago they were popping up for $15ish each. This is about the closest thing I could find to what I have.

Amazon.com: Truck-Lite 33203R Marker Clearance Light (33 Series, Dual Function, LED, Red Round, 1 Diodes, P2, Black Rubber Grommet, Hardwired, 180 Bullet Terminal, 12V, Kit) : Automotive

Buy Truck-Lite 33203R Marker Clearance Light (33 Series, Dual Function, LED, Red Round, 1 Diodes, P2, Black Rubber Grommet, Hardwired, 180 Bullet Terminal, 12V, Kit): Side Marker Assemblies - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com

That might be a little big for mine. I think it’s 19(?)x15.5”. Overall width with the tanks is 22”. I’ve not had much luck finding one small enough but that gives me a reason to finally unbox and build the Swag press brake sitting under my press.
 
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